Morning State News Roundup: Former Milwaukee Archbishop in the running to be new Pope

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VATICAN CITY - The world’s Catholic cardinals have reportedly narrowed their list of possibilities for the new pope – and former Milwaukee Archbishop Tim Dolan is one of those names.

But unlike some candidates, Dolan does not have Vatican experience. He admits having weak language skills in Italian – and that could be a big disadvantage, since the day-to-day administration of the Vatican is done in Italian. Still, the AP says Dolan and Sean O’Malley of Boston are among the focus of the voting cardinals. Cardinals Odilo Scherer of Brazil and Angelo Scola of Milan Italy are also on the rumor list. Scola heads the Archdiocese of Milan – and he used to serve in Venice, where several previous popes have come from. Over 100 cardinals, including Dolan and Wisconsin natives James Harvey and Raymond Burke, are in the final day of talks before the voting begins tomorrow. The new pope needs 77 votes. And if the leading candidates don’t get them, the AP says a host of surprise names could come forward to replace the retiring Pope Benedict XVI. Dolan served as Milwaukee’s archbishop for seven years before becoming the Archbishop of New York in 2009. He became a cardinal early last year.

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Slowly but surely, Wisconsin’s largest mortgage insurer is getting out of its financial doldrums. MGIC lost one-point-seven billion dollars in 2007, as the Great Recession was just starting to do a number on the housing industry. The company ended up paying billions of dollars in insurance settlements, as the mortgages they insured went into foreclosure. Even last year, as the housing market showed major signs of recovery, MGIC lose $927-million dollars. But now, more folks are buying the company’s stock, as shares have risen by 85-percent this year over last. Also, MGIC took in another $1.1 billion in capital just last week, by selling more common stock and notes. Experts say MGIC still faces a lot of hurdles, as it deals with what it insured in 2008 and earlier – but those policies now make up just a third of the company’s business.

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A former Waupaca County man is not sure when he’ll be sentenced, after he admitted raping a 20-year-old woman in Iola back in 1990. 41-year-old Glendon Gouker has struck a plea deal in which he was convicted of first-degree sexual assault. He was charged in late January, about the time when authorities said he was a person-of-interest in the killings of a man and a woman in Weyauwega in 1992 – two years after the sex assault. State and local authorities are still looking into the slayings of Tanna Togstad and Tim Mumbrue. And they’ve taken several steps to ask the public what it knows about the case – including a billboard on Highway 10 in Waupaca County with photos of the two murder victims. Gouker appeared in court on Friday to settle his sexual assault case. A sentencing date was not immediately set. Gouker has lived in Oklahoma in the recent past. He was extradited to Wisconsin a month-and-a-half ago, even though he faces a homicide charge in Oklahoma in the death of a 19-year-old man.

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The U.S. Championship Cheese Contest begins tomorrow in Green Bay with a record number of entries. At last word, 1,702 cheeses have entered – almost 100 more than the last national contest which was held two years ago. John Umhoefer of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association says the variety of cheeses continues to grow, and that’s probably why we’re seeing more and more entries. In 2011, the top winner was a goat-cheese made by the LaClare Family Farms of Chilton. Judging takes place tomorrow and Wednesday at Lambeau Field in Green Bay – where the event has been held every two years since 2009.

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